SCOTT McDonald has revealed that he has long since reconciled himself with the events of 'Helicopter Sunday'.

McDonald's brace for Motherwell at Fir Park denied Martin O'Neill's Celtic the title and handed it on a platter to Rangers on the final day of the 2004-05 season.

The Aussie would go on to sign for Celtic in 2007 during Gordon Strachan's reign at the club.

The Celtic strikeforce that fateful day in Lanarkshire was Chris Sutton, John Hartson and on-loan Wales international Craig Bellamy.

All three failed to add to Sutton's early strike and the Hoops paid the ultimate price for their profligacy in front of goal as Rangers got the win they required at Easter Road against Hibs to snatch the crown from under the noses of their rivals.

Lifelong Celtic supporter McDonald - nicknamed Skippy by supporters - insists he has no regrets over that day as he was being the consummate professional.

McDonald said: "It is one of those things. Everyone still mentions it to you every day of the week.

"It is fine and I have to live with it. Do I regret it? No. Why should I?

"The Celtic fans can say what they want. I have this discussion time and again with people. Gone are the days when I would get upset or angry about it.

"I was on £300 or £400 a week with Motherwell at the time and a £1,000 win bonus for top-six games.

"But money wasn't going through my head at the time, to be honest.

"You want to finish the season on a high.

"The biggest games of the season for a Motherwell player is playing against Celtic and Rangers.

"You want to produce your best performance in those matches. You want to show that you can play at that level.

"It happened. Everbody remembers that I scored two goals but they forget the game itself.

"If you go through the game and watch the game again you'll see the opportunities for Celtic to score a second goal and kill the game off.

"They have one v ones and all sorts of clear-cut chances.

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"Nobody talks about all of this, including their own players, but they do like to remind everybody of my part in it all. It takes the pressure off them.

"The Celtic players who played that day at Fir Park should have a look at themselves. They should not be looking at me. I did my job.

"Those Celtic players did not do their job on that day. That might hurt them me saying that but it's the truth.

"I've played the bad guy for everyone so long. It is convenient to just blame me for that performance, it is incredible.

"That's why I wouldn't change it because everybody knew who I was after I scored those two goals against Celtic.

"Did a lot of people know me before that? Not a lot of people.

"That took me on to the next stage where I was scoring goals again and then all of a sudden I had created interest.

"If it was any other team would I have done the same thing? Absolutely.

"It didn't matter to me who I was playing against at that point as you always try your hardest and you want to score goals and do well.

"There was a time right after the match when I totally panicked. I thought 'Shit, what I have done here?'

"At the time you have a flashback to celebrating the goal.

"People always bring up my celebration of the goal but you don't know what you're doing at that point as you are lost in the moment.

"There is a point in the video where you see me standing there thinking 'Oh, shit!'

"There is that moment but people always see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.

"I am not here to defend myself or change people's minds.

"I just love that I had the opportunity to play for Celtic and to do my job for the club that I supported as a young boy and I loved every minute of it.

"The best part about it was when I signed for Celtic and people forget this: it took balls to move to Celtic. 

"It took balls to say no to everybody else and sign for the team where a lot of people might not like me.

"I signed for Celtic because I backed myself. I was up against it before I kicked a ball for the club.

"I knew that and I knew I would cop it every time I missed a chance and things weren't going right.

"I put myself in that position and it was no problem as I was happy to do it.

"That was just my mentality: 'You go hard...I'll go harder'.

"Some people hate you for it, some people admire it. It is just the way I live my life."